Mumbai: German carmaker Volkswagen has launched the Vento, the premium version of its successful car Polo in India. The car will be manufactured in India.

Vento is scheduled to go on sale across the country early next month. The 1.6-litre petrol Trendline version will be priced at Rs6.99 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi), while the 1.6-litre petrol Highline manual and automatic versions come for Rs 8.2 lakh and Rs 9.2 lakh respectively.

The 1.6 litre diesel Trendline and Highline variants are priced at Rs. 7.99 lakh and Rs. 9.23 lakh respectively (ex-showroom New Delhi).

The Vento petrol will have a 1.6-litre engine delivering 105 PS of power at 5,250 rpm and peak torque of 153 Nm at 3,800 rpm. This engine comes with the option of a 5-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic gearbox capable of 15.83 km/l and 14.4 km/l respectively.

The diesel variant on the other hand comes with a 1.6 litre engine combined with a 5-speed manual transmission.

This delivers a maximum of 105 PS and 250 Nm of torque, and a mileage of 20.54 km/l. An assortment of interior and exterior features in the new Vento include front and rear centre armrests, front door storage compartments, sunglass storage inside the glove box, as well as cupholders.

The Highline model comes with body coloured exterior door handles and mirrors, ABS, front airbags for the drive and co-driver, and an Anti-Theft System.

On the occasion of the launch Joerg Mueller, president and managing director, Volkswagen India private Ltd said, ''The launch of the Vento not only marks another milestone in our journey together into a successful future for the Volkswagen Group but also reiterates Volkswagen's commitment to India.

In fact, in the last three years, the Volkswagen Group has launched a new model in India every two months which reflects our strong belief in the potential of the market here.''

Volkswagen expects the Polo and Vento to help increase its market share in the rapidly growing Indian market. The company is on track with its planned capacity ramp-up and would achieve full annual production capacity of 110,000 cars at the plant by end 2011.

Volkswagen Group is eyeing to grab 8-10 per cent market share in the next five years through its brands like Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen.

Volkswagen launched the compact car Polo in February 2010.

Volkswagen sold 2,597 cars in July 2010 in India, an impressive 36 percent growth over the same period the previous year. The company's sales growth has been mainly on the back of the Polo of which 6618 units have been sold since launch in March 2010. 

The company saw a 67 per cent increase in sales of its luxury car Passat in July 2010 compared to sales in the same period last year.

The company's small-luxury car Beetle however has not been as successful having sold only 301 units since its launch in January 2010. The company's SUV, Touareg sold 69 units during the January -July 2010 period.

The success of the Polo (monthly orders of about 2,500 vehicles in July) seems to have caught the German company unawares.  Shortage of auto components and quality issues with vendors has led to the waiting period for the Polo going up to three to four months. 
 
Volkswagen launched the Polo in March this year with local content of 55 per cent.

The car is Volkswagen's most ambitious launch in the country priced aggressively to be able to effectively compete in the small car segment that accounts for more than 70 per cent of the overall passenger market in the country. 
 
The company expects the Vento variant to do just as well as the Polo.